WCHA Frozen Five: Minnesota Schools No-Shows in Tournament

Minnesotans had three in-state teams in the tournament: The top seeded Minnesota Golden Gophers, the second-seed and defending champion Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs, and the St. Cloud State Huskies.

After the North Dakota Fighting Sioux defeated the Huskies 4-1 on Thursday night, it set up a great match up against the Golden Gophers. The Gophers were 3-1 against the Sious this season and were 11-3 when playing in the Twin Cities.

Kyle Rau, Jake Hanson, and Zack Busish gave the Gophers an early 3-0 lead in the second period, by the Sioux scored six unanswered goals; including five in the third period to give the Sioux a 6-3 victory and a berth in the WCHA Championship game. The Gophers had allowed a league-low 88 goals all season.

Things didn't go much better on the other side of the bracket for Minnesota-Duluth, who was taking on the Pioneers of the University of Denver. Denver jumped out to a 3-0 lead, just like the Gophers, but the Bulldogs tied the game at three after two Mike Seidel goals and a goal by WCHA Player of the Year and Scoring Champion Jack Connolly.

After a scoreless overtime period, Denver's Zac Larraza sent the Buldog's packing with a game-winner at the 8:14 mark in the second overtime period to send the Pioneers on a collision course with the Fighting Sioux for the Broadmoor trophy tonight.

The self-proclaimed 'State of Hockey' had three of the five school represented, but at the end of the weekend had an 0-3 record as Minneesotans will be foreced to watch Denver take on the Fighting Sioux on their home ice. Denver and ND have combined to win five of the last seven WCHA tournaments.

The Gophers ended their season as regular-season WCHA champions with a 20-8-0 record, the Bulldogs finished 16-7-5, and the Huskies had a 12-12-4 mark.

On the women's side, however, the Gopher women were the only Minnesota representative and will face top-seeded Wisconsin at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, MN for the championship. The Gopher women beat North Dakota 5-1 to reach the championship game.

Comments

Days after the Minnesota Wild sent Darroll Powe and Nick Palmieri to the New York Rangers for Mike Rupp, another player shake up for the struggling hockey team the day before they take on the first-place Vancouver Canucks in St. Paul.Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune has rep...

Latest on FanVsFan

The lone batting champion in Angels history has lost his battle withcancer. Johnson was 72 years old, and was (and still is) the Angels'lonebatting champion, hitting .329 in1970 for the 'California' Angels. The Detroit native was a very good ballplayer who stood out for a number of teams.Bobbie Dittmeier has more on this story over at MLB.com. O...